House Update Feb 20th

The house project is moving along as the door and window framing is done and the majority of the paint is finished. We're now working on countertops and floors and hope to move back in in about a month. Many, many details to go but it looks good so far. Here are some pictures:

House Pictures Feb 20 2009

Jack's Birthdays

Jack turned 4 on February 7 (I know, hard to believe) and he was lucky enough to have two birthday parties. The first one was in Texas on his actual birthday. It was a bit impromptu since we were in Dallas for Papaw's funeral, but with Kristen's two kids and my cousin Kim's five kids, we ended up with quite a shindig. The kids played a lot outside and we had ice cream cake and tons of fun. We didn't plan on it, but the party was great.

Jack's other party was this Saturday on the Santa Monica Pier. We worried all week about the weather and it rained up until Friday. Saturday was spectacular though as we couldn't have had a better day. The location was unbelievable (I know we never had birthday parties in locations as scenic as this). The kids rode a bunch of rides (we had trouble getting them off of the bumper cars) and Jack had an awesome time. He was so happy!

Robyn's birthday was also last weekend, February 8th. We spent most of it on an airplane coming home but we did go out to a nice dinner Friday night. She has her own ice cream cake in the freezer that we still need eat. Lots of ice cream cake in the last week!

Here are some pictures of both parties!

LA

Jack's Birthday Santa Monica 2009

Dallas

Jack & Robyn's Birthday 2009

House Update Jan 25th

As I mentioned in the last post, we're coming down the home stretch on the house. On the outside, the rough stucco is done, the windows are in, and the roof is done. The main thing left to do on the outside is to apply the finish color coat of stucco which they will do once we nail down the color. We also need to get some of the concrete blasted up and get some steps built in the back, but that will be done near the very end. The garage is a bit of a mess but we'll probably deal with that after we move back in the house.

On the inside, the tile and cabinets are going in right now. We have a coat of paint on the kitchen and family room but we're not sure we like the color. The tile in the bathrooms is starting to come together and it looks great. The cabinets look good too but we've had a few issues. We're going to make the island a tad smaller than what we'd planned on and we need to figure out what we're going to do with the oven cabinet. The contractor says it's too small for the oven we're getting, but the cabinet guy says it will be fine with a little cutting on the sides. Not sure who's right here, but we're siding with the contractor for now.

The window and door frames should get done this and the tile and cabinets should be pretty much finished as well. After that, we're on to the countertops and then flooring. Below are some pictures from this weekend.

House Pictures Jan 25

What's been up?

Well, around our house, there's been a lot going on. First, we're still in the rental house during the last few weeks (hopefully) of the big remodel project. The cabinets are starting to go in and the tile should be finished this week. The house is really starting to come together and we can't wait to move back in.

Jack is back in school and likes his class. He also does basketball practice two days a week after school and takes swim lessons on the weekend. He's developing quite a jumpshot and is getting better at a swimming off by himself.

Avery continues to grow and has started eating table food. She seems to want to eat everything. She would eat chips and salsa if we'd let her. She's also now mobile and getting quite fast at crawling. You definitely have to keep an eye on her now or she will be into something before you know it.

Robyn has had a lot of interest in two of her scripts has several people waiting to read the rewrite of her comedy. It's been tough to write during the last month or two since we were out of town for the holidays and now the house project is almost all consuming. She's excited though and has gotten some great feedback (by that I mean both positive as well as helpful).

Other than that, we finally got around to posting a boatload of pictures. Check them out:

We're back

It's a been a long hiatus, but we're back up with the blog. There's a lot going on, so let's get started...

First things first, Robyn came in second for a HUGE screenwriting award called the Goldwyn award. It's given by the Goldwyn Foundation (the G in MGM for you non-Hollywood types) to the best screenplays submitted by students in the UC system. The competition consisted of a lot of great screenwriters, many from Robyn's class, and despite that, Robyn came in second! The results were published in the

Hollywood Reporter: (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3iac3113c71beb425a7c52d45feb7d21fd)

Variety:
(http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117995207.html?categoryid=1236&cs=1)

and in the UCLA Paper:
(http://newsroom.ucla.edu/portal/ucla/ucla-sweeps-2008-samuel-goldwyn-70952.aspx).

She's been getting lots of calls and emails from agents and managers as a result so this has been a real boost. We're really excited for her and proud of her.

Jack's doing great and is back in school at New World Montessori. He loves it there and has been doing really well in his second year. He's a lot more confident in himself and is really learning a lot. He loves to play all kinds of sports and any kind of car.

Avery continues to grow in size and grow cuter. She's now almost 8 months and is big for her age. She smiles all the time and loves to laugh at big brother Jackie. She's starting to try to talk and also loves to stand up and look around. She's such a happy girl. We are truly blessed to have such great children.

We're still living in the rental house and work on our house is coming along. The walls are up, the rough plumbing and electrical are done, the roof is on, and the windows are in as well. It's looking pretty good!

I'm doing ok as well. I just got back from a trip to Korea and Taiwan and am getting back on LA time. Pomegranate season is in full swing so I've been busy, but things are going well.

More to come. In the meantime, here are some pictures...

Jack & Avery Oct 2008

Big Family Vacation & House Remodel Underway!

Hey all,

It's a been a while since our last post but we've been busy. We've been on a big family vacation, started remodeling the house, and Jack started school again.

The vacation was fantastic. We had both sides of the family spread across two condos in Myrtle Beach, SC for a little over a week. We went to the beach a lot, we ate tons of seafood, the kids played until they dropped everyday, and we had great weather. It was tough for everyone to leave, especially the kids. Apparently, Barrett (my sister Kristen's 3 year old) just put his head down and cried as the went down in the elevator for the last time.

From Myrtle Beach August 2008

When we got back, the house remodel was in full gear. In a little more than a month, they've blasted up all of the concrete in the backyard, built the foundation and floor for the new addition, pretty much torn out the entire interior of the existing house, and done the rough plumbing. Still a long way to go, but it's really fun to watch the progress. I'm sure it won't be as much fun in a few months when it's still going, but we're having a great time for now.

From House Remodel 20080912

We've Moved! At least temporarily...

As many of you know, we've been looking to expand our house, pretty much from the day we bought it. Now, with a second child, the time has come as the house is literally busting at the seems with two adults, two kids, and the two cats. We're adding about 850 square feet onto the back, expanding the kitchen in the process and adding a family room. It's going to be a long process but we are excited that it is finally underway. More pictures to come. In the meantime, we've moved out and are renting a house down the street from ours. The rental house is actually quite a bit bigger than our existing house, so it's been a nice change!

Stuff Going On

Wow, it's been a busy month since my last post! Avery's grown a ton, Jack's been doing lots of activities, Robyn celebrated an usual milestone, Brad had a birthday, and we're jumping in on remodeling the house.

Let's see, first things first, Avery continues to grow at a rapid pace. The best thing though is that she's starting to get more interactive. She likes to smile and pose for mommy and daddy and coos so cutely.

Jack's had a busy summer so far. He's been to summer school (not his favorite place) and also to JAG gym (one of his favorite places). JAG gym is a gymnastic class where the kids run around, climb on things, jump on stuff, in other words, all of his favorite things in one place. He comes home ecstatic, but exhausted. Yeah, it's great! This past week, he's been going to a science camp where's he been building cars, airplanes, marble toys, and doing lots of fun activities.

Robyn went to an unusual event a few weeks ago: the five year anniversary of The Room. The Room was a movie that Robyn did when we first moved to LA and she was building her resume and demo reel. Everything surrounding the movie from the director to the script to the production of it was hysterical. The problem is, the writer/director/producer/star actor thought it was a serious drama. Anyway, the movie is so hilariously bad, that it's developed a cult following and is still shown the last Friday of every month. People really get into it: they dress up as characters in the movie, they yell out the lines, they act out the scenes as the movie is playing, and they throw stuff at the screen. Anyway, the five year anniversary was in June so Robyn went with a group of UCLA friends. Because the movie has such feverish fans and she really didn't want to be recognized, she had to go in costume. At the end of the movie, several people wanted her autograph and number of them wanted to have their pictures taken with her. Really funny stuff. A link to the pictures is below.

Robyn @ The Room 5 Year Anniversary Screening

We've also started planning for the big remodel: looking at hardwood floors, appliances, windows, doors, faucets, tubs, showers, etc. Wow, it's amazing how many different kinds of toilets there are, not to mention floors, tiles, hardwood floors, and other stuff. Anyway, we start in a few weeks and have rented a house down the street to live in while the work is going. Being close by will be great for keeping up with what's going on and having a backyard.

Well, I think I've rambled on long enough. Guess that's what happens when you only post once a month.

Robyn's Graduation

On Friday, Robyn officially finished her MFA in screenwriting from UCLA with a graduation ceremony that was outside on a spectacular LA afternoon. Robyn's parents were here and both Jack and Avery went as well. Knowing how hard it has been to juggle the classes, meetings and writing with being a mother, we were all so proud to watch her walk across that stage and get her degree.

Avery slept through most of the ceremony and Jack had a hard time finding Robyn among all of the black robes and ended up playing with his cars or climbing on trees behind the audience, but both kids were great. After graduation, we went to a reception were Robyn got to see a lot of her friends as well as several who graduated last her but were there to help celebrate. All in all, it was a fantastic day! Below are pictures of day and weekend.

Robyn's UCLA Graduation

Brad & Jack at the Dodgers Game

Jack & I went to a Dodgers - Cubs game on Sunday afternoon. We had great seats thanks to our neighbor Tim and we had a blast. I told Jack that we could get a hat or shirt or whatever he wanted, but we when stopped at the gift shop on the way into the stadium, the only thing he wanted was cars. Fortunately, they had special Dodgers cars and he thought those we're great. With those and a kid-sized Dodger hat we were on our way. We played a lot with his cars, got popcorn and ice cream in a hat, and watched a few innings of the game. He got so excited every time the batter hit the ball and he cheered when everyone else did regardless of whether the Dodgers or Cubs got a hit. In fairness to him, I think I cheered for both teams too since I'm a Cubs fan but we were at a Dodgers game. Jack ended up not wanting to leave and we stayed until the middle of the 9th inning. Here are a few pictures:

Avery Grows, Robyn Wins

Avery continues to grow at a rapid pace. At her two month checkup, she checked in at 12 lb. 4 oz and 23 1/2 inches long. That means she's grown almost 6 pounds and 4 inches in only 2 months! She's shot up from 17th percentile to 85 percentile in two months and at this pace, she'll be the biggest three month old around. Needless to say, the doctor was very happy with her progress and said she's doing great! She's super sweet and loves napping in her pink vibrating chair and trying to talk to Mommy, Jackie, and Daddy.

Robyn found out some great news this week. Her script, "The Dog Conspiracy" which is a family comedy, won two awards this week. The first is called Oliver's Prize and is awarded to the best family or kid oriented film. The second one is the National Association of Theater Owners Fellowship in Film and is given by the faculty at UCLA for both an individual script as well as overall great performance in the classroom. It's one of the bigger awards UCLA gives so she's really excited.

Robyn also has a couple of big events this week. The first is the Screenwriters Showcase which is Monday night. At this event, the students and faculty celebrate another good year and showcase a few scripts. It's always fun, most of Robyn's classmates are there, and then there's a big party afterward. The big event though is graduation, which is Friday afternoon. It's hard to believe that three years have past, but they have, and Robyn officially earns her MFA on Friday. She's worked really hard for it and has somehow managed to do it while having one toddler and being pregnant with Avery. Jack, Avery, and I are all very proud of her!

Below are links to some new pictures.

Memorial Day 2008

Avery & Jack, End of May, Early June 2008

Recent pictures of Avery

Sorry, we've been pretty bad about posting pictures of Avery. Here are a bunch with some of Jack as well and a few random ones with Robyn or me.

Avery 4 to 8 Weeks

Avery's Relaxing, Jack's Playing, Robyn's Writing, Brad's Travelling

That pretty much sums up what each of us has been up to in the last three weeks. Avery continues to be a very mellow baby. She loves to sit in her vibrating pink chair and watch all of us do stuff. She rarely cries and she's sleeping better now that we went back to swaddling her at night. Her long stretch is between 4 and 6 hours every night. That would be even better if Jack would sleep past dawn. Now that the sun comes up early, he generally starts stirring before 6. Apparently, I used to get up early when I was kid so I guess this is my payback. When does fall start again? :-) Avery seems like she's going to be a good eater. We had steak tonight for dinner and she was imitating Robyn bringing her fork to her mouth. She also licked her lips and opened her mouth as if to say, "I'll take some!"

Jack's been doing great, but recently has shown a few signs that he misses being the only child just a tad. He whines a little more than he used to and has become even more particular than he was before, but other than that though, he's great. He gives Avery lots of hugs and kisses and loves talking to her. She stares in amazement at him and likes watching his antics. He's gotten better at hitting the baseball off of the tee and loves playing in the backyard.

Robyn has been working on rewriting one of her scripts for a producer that is interested in seeing it. It's tough to do with the baby around in the morning and impossible when both kids are home in the afternoon, but she's been making some progress and hopes to send it off in the next day or two. She's still doing her Netflix movie reviewing gig and as we speak is watching another classic movie. Not sure if it's just me, but she seems to get allocated a lot of black & white movies to review.

As for me, I did a mad dash to Korea last weekend for work. There aren't any pomegranates in Korea, but there are people who want to buy them and we have to figure out a few things to make that happen. The trip was very short: I left Saturday afternoon LA time, arrived Sunday night Korea time, had meetings Monday and Tuesday morning and then landed back home Tuesday morning LA time. I spent most of the time at the hotel but did get to spend about two hours at this tower on top of a mountain in the middle of Seoul. What a fantastic view!

Well, this entry has gotten a bit long, so I'll sign off. I'll post some pictures of everyone tomorrow.

Brad

Avery: Growing Little Girl

We took Avery in for her four week checkup on Friday and were pretty amazed at how much she has grown. We knew that she'd been often and eating a lot, so we knew she'd grown, but she has REALLY grown. At her four week visit, she was 9lb 4 oz and 21 3/4 inches long. That's almost 2 pounds heavier than she was two weeks ago. Two pounds in two weeks and 2 1/4 inches in 4 weeks! She's gone from being a small baby to being right in the middle of the range in only two weeks. She's clearly following in the footsteps of her big brother!

Speaking of, Jack is doing great and his teachers at school say he has been very happy recently. He really likes being a big brother. He's also been pooping in the potty at school which is a really big step forward. He got the baseball tee out this morning and was smacking the ball all over the backyard. Unlike two weeks ago, he was listening to my suggestions and realized that I can help him hit the ball farther. Moms and Dads do know about some things.

Robyn and I are doing ok and we managed to take the whole family to dinner at our favorite Mexican food place last weekend. This two kid thing is not easy, but it's doable. It's tough on the days that I go to the plant b/c I leave early and can't take Jack to school. Not that it's easy on the other days, but it's tougher then. It's hard to believe it's already been a month since Avery was born. Time really flies.

Below are some pictures.

Settling in at home

Well, we're settling in to life at home with a newborn, at least sort of. Robyn's parents were here for the first weekend at home, and her mom stayed the rest of that week, and then my parents have been here for the last week. Sooooo, we've had a lot of help and that has been fantastic! Thank you, thank you! I'm back at work and the last of our help leaves Saturday morning though, so next week will be the real challenge.

Avery is sleeping better now than the first week, but is still getting up every two to three hours. Poor Robyn! At least it's now every 2 to 3 hours rather than every 1 to 2 hours though. Jack has been enjoying all of the attention from the grandparents and has settled into his role as the big brother. He's very helpful and loves to get things for the baby. We got him some new backyard toys (a baseball glove, some soft baseballs, a tee to hit the balls off of, a little baseball bat, and a new soccer ball). In typical three year old fashion, he'd play with one for about 5 minutes then want to play with something else. Last weekend was really hot so it was a great time to play outside.

Avery's First Day at Home

Avery spent her first night at home last night we've remembered how much work newborns are. Other than one two hour stretch, Avery was up almost every hour. She's eating very well and very often which is good, other than the getting up every hour. She's doing great though and continues to have a sweet disposition.

Nanny and Poppy (Robyn's parents) are both here now and are having a ball. It's been great having them here for the birth, and Jack's been excited to have more people to play with too.

I've been getting to take Jack to school and pick him up which has been fun as well. Jack's become quite the social guy. Today he needed to say goodbye to nearly every kid in his class before he left and he had two little girls following him around to give him a hug.

I've added a few more pictures from the hospital. They can be found by clicking the picture below.

Avery's Birth

Avery Elizabeth Paris - March 29, 2008

The newest member of our family joined us on March 29, 2008 at 2:23pm. After all of our concerns how how small she was, she weighed in at 6 lbs 5 oz and measured 19.5 oz long. There was a bit of confusion about her actual birthweight though. The scale in the delivery room showed 6 lbs 0 oz but she weighed 6 lb 5 oz a few hours later in the nursery and weighed 6 lbs earlier this morning, so everyone has concluded that there is no way she only weighed 6lbs at birth. Regardless of how much she weighs, she's doing great. She wants to eat essentially anytime she's awake so that has been challenging but it's a great sign. Robyn is recovering well and is already free of all tubes, is eating solid foods, and just took a shower. Looks like we'll be at the hospital until Wednesday but Robyn and Avery are doing great. So far, Avery seems to have a very laid back disposition and only cries until she realizes that someone is taking care of whatever ails her (dirty diaper, need for food, etc). She also loves to be held which has been great for dad and Nanny (Robyn's mom).

Jack has been really excited to see Avery and has been really cute around her. He keeps saying, "She's so little" and "she's so cute" and has been talking about her to pretty much everyone we see, nurses, doctors, kids at school, people at the cafeteria, etc. He told us he wants her to come home so that he can show her his toys and teach her to ride his tricycle. Such a good big brother.

Below are some pictures form her first 24 hours.

Easter Egg Hunt

Jack got invited to an Easter egg hunt at his friend Zion's house and he had a blast. Before the egg hunt, Jack played and swam in the pool in the pool with Daddy. The actual egg hunt went really quickly (that's what happens when you have lots of three year olds), but they all still had fun.

Robyn's doing great and we found out on Friday that the baby is growing fine. She's still a bit small for her age, but the doctors aren't concerned anymore.

Robyn & a funny Jack story

This is probably the one and only time we'll be excited to point out that Robyn has gotten bigger. The full story is that she's put on a pound and her abdomen has gotten bigger since last week, both of which are good signs that the baby is putting on weight as well. We get the baby weight measured again tomorrow, but things look pretty good for now.

Jack had a classic line tonight. We were signing some documents to increase our home equity loan in preparation for remodeling the house. The notary was here and as part of the process we had to put our thumbprints on a few of the documents. Jack thought this was neat and wanted to do it too, so we grabbed a blank sheet of one of the forms and let him do it. After he'd stamped a few, the notary made a joke that Jack now had to help pay back the loan, and I then asked him if he was ready to go to work. He responded saying, "Noooo, I'm not a man, I'm just a kid!!" He was pretty adamant about it and it took a minute to convince him that we were joking and that he didn't actually have to work. He's becoming quite the funny little guy!

Baby #2 Update 2

Robyn's been feeling a bit exhausted recently and had some contractions Friday while she was being monitored. As a result, the doctor wants her taking it easy and resting 2 to 4 hours a day. Needless to say, this is not the easiest thing to do with active Jackie running around and while she is trying to finish up her last script. Over the weekend, she was able to rest and at least not be on her feet much. This seemed to pay off as she has felt much better the last two days and had only one contraction while being monitored today. That is great news and means we're less likely to have to have the baby earlier than we'd planned. She goes to a different doctor on Friday to have the baby measured again. As long as the baby's growing well, we'll be able to wait at least another week to have the baby.